Approximately 1¼ acres of freehold land for an English Church at Mosterd's Bay (early name for the Strand) was granted by the Government to the Diocesan Trus tees in the late 1880's. Many years later the Govern­ ment was to purchase back from the Church a portion of this ground adjoining the Main Road as a site for the Strand's second Post Office and Magistrate's Court. Both buildings are now superseded.

In 1886 the Revd. D.E. Young, Chaplain to the Bishop of Cape Town, wrote to Mr. Richard Brock, Priest in Charge of Somerset West :" The Bishop has been considering your letter as to a designation for the new Church at the Strand and he would suggest that as it is a fishing village it ought to be an apostle who was a fisherman. He has therefore thought of S1. Andrew, S1. Peter being already the title of the Church at Mossel Bay". But it was to be many years later before S1. Andrew's Church became a reality.

In 1891 the Diocesan Trustees loaned a sum of 200 pounds towards the erection of a hall at the Strand." St. Andrew's hall was built shortly after this and served for many years as Church, school and concert hall.

In 1922 the Strand was separated from Somerset West and declared an independent Parochial District which was to include Gordon's Bay and the Dynamite Factory. It became a Parish on 23 August 1923, The Revd. Cuthbert Viner being its first rector.

St. Andrew's church was erected in 1926, and a rectory adjoining the old hall was completed at about the same time. Among the indefatigable workers for the Anglican Church at the strand in the closing years of the nineteenth and the early years of the twentieth century were Mr & Mrs Jolm Abeggelen of the National Hotel and Mrs Edmund Scarbrow, wife of one of one of the Strand's first doctors and first Mayor.

Recent History & Development

Until July 2006, the Parish boundaries included the St. John's Church located in the Rusthof area of Strand. The St. Mary's Chapelry in Lwandle / Nomsamo still forms part of the St. Andrew's Parish. Services at St. Mary's are conducted in isiXhosa and the Chapelry is richly blessed with many Parish Ministries.